Pagan Community Notes is a series focused on news originating from within the Pagan community. Reinforcing the idea that what happens to and within our organizations, groups, and events is news, and news-worthy. My hope is that more individuals, especially those working within Pagan organizations, get into the habit of sharing their news with the world. So let’s get started!

Steve Moore, an author and occultist who helped found Fortean Times, passed away earlier this month. Moore worked extensively with famed comic writer Alan Moore (no relation), who credited him with learning how to write comic scripts. The Strange Attractor journal, to which Moore was a regular contributor, has posted a moving tribute. Quote: “Steve was a warm, wise and gentle man, with a surreal sense of humour and an astoundingly deep knowledge that covered history, the I Ching, forteana, magic, oriental mysticism, martial arts cinema, science fiction, underground comics and worlds more. Steve was amongst the earliest members of the Gang of Fort, who launched Fortean Timesmagazine in the early 1970s, and later edited its scholarly journal Fortean Studies. He was also the author of a great many influential comics and short stories for publications.” What is remembered, lives.

Anthropologist Murphy Pizza’s history and ethnography of Minnesota’s Twin Cities Pagan community, dubbed “Paganistan,” will be published by Ashgate Press in April. Quote: “The story of the community traces the formation of some of the earliest organizations and churches in the US, the influence of publication houses and bookstores, the marketplace, and the local University, on the growth and sustenance of a distinct Pagan community identity, as well as discussions of the patterns of diversifying and cohesion that occur as a result of societal pressure, politics, and generational growth within it. As the first ever study of this long-lived community, this book sets out to document Paganistan as another aspect of the increasing prevalence of Paganism in the US and contributes to the discussion of the formation of new American religious communities.” This will no doubt be required reading for many. You can find the Amazon.com listing, here. The hardcover is pretty spend-y, so you might want to await the paperback edition.

Sacred Space Conference board member Caroline Kenner has posted an overview of the recently held East Coast event at The Witches’ Voice. Quote: “2014 marks Sacred Space’s 24th year, an extravaganza of classes and rituals designed for an audience of intermediate to advanced magical practitioners. Each year, Sacred Space hosts national presenters as well as local teachers. This year, M. Macha Nightmare, Selena Fox and Orion Foxwood were our featured talent, and sponsored guests Jason Pitzl-Waters and Renna Shesso also joined us. We were delighted to welcome back Selena and Orion in particular: they both presented at the first conference of Sacred Space’s most recent incarnation, held in 2008. This year, we were able to give them a much larger and more vigorous audience for their teaching.” You can listen to the Appalachian Folk Traditions panel from Sacred Space here at The Wild Hunt.

In Other Pagan Community News:

Margot Adler will be speaking at The ACADEMI of Life at the end of April. Quote: “Starting as a meditation on mortality after the illness and death of her husband, Margot Adler read more than 270 vampire novels, from teen to adult, from gothic to modern, from detective to comic. She began to wonder why vampires have such traction in our society. Why is Hollywood spending billions on vampire films and television series every year?”

The 15th annual Trillium Festival, an ADF Druid gathering, runs from April 17th through the 20th in Virginia. Quote: “Come join us for the 15th annual Trillium Festival, four days of excellent workshops, fellowship, fun and yes, magic in the beautiful highlands of Virginia at TLC Campground. This year our theme is “Druidry Ancient and Modern”, and we’ll have tracts for those both old and new to Druidry. We’ll be featuring workshops from some of ADF’s most accomplished scholars. With Warrior Games, Brewing Competition, Bardic Circle, and Children’s Workshops, there’s something for everyone. Hope to see you there!”

Merry Meet, a new gathering held in Portland, Oregon, is coming up the weekend of April 26th and 27th. Quote: “Merry Meet is a new gathering in Portland, Oregon created to honor earth-based witchcraft, goddess traditions, and anarchistic magic. This will be a weekend full of workshops with a vibrant magic marketplace. We will have classes on queer magic, psychic self defense, divination practices, dream work, faery tradition, and more!!” Wild Hunt contributor Alley Valkyrie is one of the featured teachers.

In a final note, the March issue of The Interfaith Observer is dedicated to “the divine feminine embodied.” Quote: “At the core of this whole issue is an assumption that a perverse, warped ‘divine masculine’ has been led humanity astray with an unending destructive addiction to being bigger and best. From Anna Shaw to women leading the way today, we encounter a different approach to leadership and community, one which takes human beings much more seriously than the dominant culture in most countries today.”

Jason Pitzl-Waters

Thanks for covering these stories, Jason. It’s painful how many losses there are for us to take in this year…

A side issue for me, a matter of style, is the tendency I’m seeing online to remember deaths with the abbreviation “RIP.” Of course we understand both what it stands for and the need for brevity in a headline… but I could wish for another way to announce a death than this. Perhaps I’m being picky, but the abbreviated cliche, in the context of remembering our dead, has always seemed almost offhanded. Someone whose life mattered to our community deserves better than a pat piece of textspeak, even in a headline.

Again, I’m aware that’s a minor point, even if it is a pet peeve of mine. Thank you again for including coverage of these deaths we might not otherwise get to hear about.